


(Not) The Best Boyfriend, and a Damn Good Babysitter

by Azure_Lynx



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Arguing but in a loving way, Breakfast, Established Relationship, Fluff, Multi, Stoncy Week 2020, Stupid Plans and Stupid Lovesick Boys, post-season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23851312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azure_Lynx/pseuds/Azure_Lynx
Summary: It takes a little more than breakfast in bed to make Nancy not mad, but Steve's willing to put in the effort. Besides, the plan wasn'tthatstupid.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 46





	(Not) The Best Boyfriend, and a Damn Good Babysitter

**Author's Note:**

> Day 1: “Good morning, beautiful/handsome” AND You caught me doing something dangerous and flipped out

“Good morning, beautiful.”

Nancy opened her eyes to a tray full of pancakes and coffee, and Steve wearing nothing but an apron.

“Oh no,” she groaned. “That’s not how this works. You do not get to make me breakfast and seduce me and then we pretend yesterday never happened.”

Steve winced. “Okay, but...could we?”

His puppy dog eyes always worked better on Jonathan than on Nancy, and Jonathan wasn’t here, so Nancy just crossed her arms and stared him down until he sheepishly slipped on some sweatpants and sat down beside her on the bed. 

He did leave the apron on, though.

“Steven Franklin Harrington,” she began.

“That is _still_ not my middle name.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not going to put your dad’s name anywhere near yours, so I’ll keep trying until we find one that sounds right. Stop interrupting me.”

It was a very reasonable interruption, in Steve’s opinion, but Nancy was on a mission to tell him he was a dumbass and she would not rest until she was done.

“I cannot _believe_ you!” 

It would’ve been smarter to keep his mouth shut, but then, a lot of people would say he wasn’t particularly smart. “Really? You can’t?” Steve would just say he didn’t have any self-preservation instincts; it had nothing to do with intelligence.

He hadn’t consulted her before he’d told his dad he wouldn’t take over the family business; that resulted in him getting kicked out. He hadn’t consulted her before moving in with Robin’s hippie parents; that resulted in him faking being her boyfriend and also saying he was looking for a real place to live. Which he was, actually. He hadn’t consulted her before he sold his car; this resulted in some money, but finding a cheaper car was not actually as easy as expected, and now he had to bike everywhere. 

“ _Steve_!” It was a good thing he’d put the coffee on her dresser, because she smacked him with a pillow and it definitely would’ve spilled something. “I’m serious!”

“So am I,” he replied.

“Sneaking into my house to team up with my _little brother_ to hop a train to Chicago is a _whole new kind of stupid_.” She huffed. “Waiting til my parents were away for the weekend was shitty, for starters, and then coming to my house without even intending to see me was shitty, too.”

“Cuz I knew you’d stop me,” he pointed out, very reasonably. She had, in fact, stopped him. “Well, okay, to be fair that part was Mike’s idea, but the kid made a compelling argument.”

“ _He’s fifteen!_ ”

“He was also correct.” Steve gestured to himself, sitting on the side of Nancy’s bed. “We are not, in fact, on a freight train to Chicago.”

“You’re _welcome_ for that, by the way.”

Mike poked his head in the door. “Everything okay?” he asked, like a little shit, because he knew it was not. 

Nancy waved her hand at him. “I’m yelling at you next, Michael.”

Mike’s eyes widened and he darted away.

Steve sighed. “Please at least drink your coffee, it’s going to get cold.” 

She frowned but held out her hands, and when Steve placed the mug between them, she pulled it close to her body and frowned. “Okay,” she said, calming slightly after a few sips. “Walk me through your stupid plan again.”

Steve sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t _my plan_ ,” he protested, not for the first time. “I caught your brother planning to hop a train to Chicago to go visit El. I figured I had two options: tell him not to and he’d go anyway, or go with him and make sure he didn’t get hurt.”

“Option three: _tell me_!”

Steve snorted. “No offense, Nance, but he hid a girl in your basement and squared off with Billy Hargrove in a sauna, among other things he’s pulled off without you noticing. Telling you is the same as telling him not to, and he’d still find a way.”

Nancy frowned, but she didn’t disagree, so Steve figured he’d won that point. She took another sip of her coffee. “Go on.”

“The freight train to Chicago is a lot closer than any passenger train, so I figured it was worth the shot. Or more accurately, it wasn’t worth trying to convince him otherwise, especially since we still had to bike there.” Steve sighed. 

“And you don’t have money,” Nancy pointed out.

“And we don’t have money,” he conceded. “So hitch-hiking seemed the most economically responsible option.”

Nancy raised her eyebrows at the word “responsible” being applied to the plan in any way, shape, or form. 

He ignored her eyebrow raise. “Once we got to Chicago, I’d find a map and get us to Ms. Byers’ new place, and when we got there, I’d call you to tell you everything was fine.”

Steve knew Chicago was massive. He knew he had no idea where Jonathan was besides ‘south’ and a street name. Jonathan told him the neighborhood but it never stuck. But it seemed doable, honestly, even now as Nancy was staring at him like he was an idiot, which he still maintained he was not.

“And how were you going to get back?” she demanded.

“Bat my eyelashes at Jonathan and ask him to drive us home,” Steve replied. 

“And if that didn’t work?”

“Well, it doesn’t really fucking matter now, does it, Nance?” he snapped, finally losing his patience. She glared. “Sorry. I’m just...too many questions. I get it, you’re mad, but I stand by my actions.”

The phone beside her bed rang and Nancy snatched it up. “Hello?” she answered hopefully, the same way she always did whenever the phone rang. “Jonathan!” Her hope was rewarded, this time. 

Steve smiled in spite of himself. 

“So Jonathan,” Nancy began in her ‘I’m gonna drag him into our argument voice.’ It was dripping with false innocence, and Steve and Jonathan both always saw right through it. “Guess who’s here right now?” She nodded. “Mmhmm. And guess what he tried to do last night?”

She recounted his plan, and he had to admit, it sounded more ridiculous when she said it, but that’s just because she didn’t believe in him. 

There was a beat. Then, “ _Jonathan!_ ” she screeched. “Don’t ‘That’s kind of romantic’ me! He could’ve gotten _hurt_ or lost or something. And Mike! Mike’s fifteen!” Nancy huffed. “Fine. Talk to him. Tell him you appreciate his grand gesture.”

She thrust the phone at Steve and crossed her arms over her chest, frowning. It was kind of cute, Steve had to admit. 

“Hey, babe,” he greeted. “So I’m a romcom hero, huh?”

Jonathan snorted. “Hardly. Though I think that video store job and all your free movies are going to your head.”

“You said it was romantic.” Steve had to stop himself from whining. It’d been very exciting to have Jonathan on his side, only now he felt betrayed.

“It was romantic. Also stupid.”

Steve leaned away from the receiver. “You can stop frowning, Nance, he called me stupid, too.”

“Good.” She did not uncross her arms, though.

“Next time just call ahead, man. And you know we’re coming back for Thanksgiving,” Jonathan reminded. Joyce hadn’t wanted to, but she wouldn’t deny her kids another visit. “Besides, you should be applying to schools around here, anyway. You could make a visit for college tours.”

Now it was Steve’s turn to snort at the concept of affording college without his dad’s money. “Yeah, okay.”

They chatted a little more, and then he passed the phone back to Nancy, who seemed slightly mollified by the end of the conversation. Steve figured he had a chance of making it out of this one.

After she put the phone down with a _click_ , he brought the pancakes over again. “I’m sorry for freaking you out, Nance,” he said honestly. “The last thing I wanna do is hurt you.”

“I know.”

“So can we go back to the plan where I make you breakfast and seduce you and we forget yesterday ever happened? Because I’m liking that plan.”

He got hit in the face with a pillow again for his efforts. “Don’t test your luck,” Nancy replied. “We’ll start with breakfast.”

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Stoncy Week 2020! Where I try to be the most productive I've been in months when it comes to writing fic. A couple of these prompts - like this first one - seemed too good to choose between, so you're getting a couple "and"s in here. Thanks for reading and joining me on this journey! I hope you enjoyed these nerds.


End file.
